|
|
Another 200” Falls in Kansas
By Patrick Dunning
Chadd Lemaster could barely make out the silhouette of this 19-pointer at last light of Kansas’ 2023 muzzleloader opener, despite the 9X10 standing at 15 yards, but knew it was a mature buck with a wide frame worth harvesting.
By the time Chadd even realized the deer was there it had winded him and blew three times before disappearing for nearly a month.
“We knew we busted the big one and decided to back out for the time being. It was too hot, the wind was swirling down there in that bottom; let’s just leave him alone till he gets back on pattern,” Chadd said. “He daylighted on October 8th walking right past the blind 10 minutes before dark, and he did it again the next night.”
By 4 pm. the following afternoon Chadd was situated in a blind along a strip of timber planted by the federal government, known as a shelter belt, between two cornfields.
“The government planted these trees years ago to mitigate soil erosion. It’s a row of timber planted for a mile or so, usually hedge or cedar trees,” Chadd said. “I was sitting in one of those rows of trees between two fields. Behind me is a river and he was bedding in that river bottom.”
Ten minutes before dusk Chadd’s target buck came out to his right at 15 yards grunting with each step and surveilling a forkhorn buck already in the field.
“He was walking and grunting and stopped right in front of me to look out into that cornfield and that’s when I pulled the trigger. I double lunged him broadside.”
Chadd credits the friendly stranger he met exhibiting at an outdoor show in Topeka last year named Matt Leach, who recently retired from the U.S. Army and started an outfitter named Freedom Outfitters LLC. offering semi-guided hunts near Fort Riley.
Buckmasters scorer Brad Forbus measured Chadd’s crossbow buck from Cloud County 200 3/8 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records.